Teacher Spotlight: Mr. Williams

Written by: Adam Tyberg (‘27)

One of Lawrence High School’s favorite teachers, known for his cool, calm, and collected nature, is Mr. Timothy Williams. Teaching Intro to Videography, Intro to Photography, Television Production, AP Photography, and E-Sports, Mr. Williams teaches a variety of media and arts classes, and offers a wide range of experience to our LHS community. However, much isn’t known about Mr. Williams, so who is he?

Now forty-two years old, Mr. Williams grew up in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour west of Philadelphia. He attended Temple University from 2011-2014 as a non-traditional-student (a student who goes to college older than the normal eighteen to twenty-two age range) at the age of twenty-seven. At Temple, Mr. Williams majored in Film and Media Arts. He did so because he “always loved watching movies” and was “interested in the process behind it.”

After graduating from Temple, Mr. Williams continued to bounce around through different job positions.  He first began working in a seasonal position for NFL Films, documenting plays and injuries in each game for the film replay. Next, he worked for a wedding company briefly, and then moved over to working for NBA Entertainment.  There, he “transcoded files,” a fancy term for double checking NBA film and highlight videos before they got released to the public to make sure they didn’t have any issues or flaws. He essentially acted as a last line of defense before things got released to the public from the NBA.  Finally, Mr. Williams began working as an assistant teacher at Lawrence High School until transitioning to become a full time teacher.

Mr. Williams worked at Lawrence High School as an assistant teacher for five years. He began as an assistant teacher to the Algebra and Geometry classes in his first year here and then moved over to working with the Core Academy for his following four years.  Afterwards, he got promoted to becoming the school’s film and media arts teacher. This year is Mr. Williams’ fourth year as a full-time teacher and ninth year overall working here at Lawrence High School.

Mr. Williams said the thing he enjoys most about his job is watching his students learn in his classes and grow as people from freshman to senior year.  He enjoys teaching because even day after day, class to class, subjects, people, and circumstances change.  School experiences are always slightly different (for good and for bad) which keeps life less repetitive. Mr. Williams also enjoys constantly tinkering with his lessons and changing things big and small here and there to continue perfecting his teaching.

Outside of school, Mr. Williams enjoys rooting for his Philadelphia Eagles, Temple Football, and Philadelphia Union. Funnily enough, he “quit on the 76ers because they were big losers.”  Outside of school, Mr. Williams also enjoys listening to all genres of music, listening to sports and documentary podcasts, jogging, and reading crime and non-fiction literature.

When asking Mr. Williams what he recommended for kids who are interested in going into photography or videography as a career, he recommended looking at different photographers and videographers online, looking at their styles, and seeing what you like.  He also recommended that if you enjoy watching tv or movies, look at the end credits for the film’s photographers and cinematographers so that you can view their work.  Ultimately, the best way to get into the industry is to gain real-world experience and experiment. It is an industry you don’t need to go to school for, with there being a plethora of resources and information online.

Thank you Mr. Williams for always being such a kind teacher and for teaching such fun and interesting classes in such engaging ways.